1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to designs and methods for reducing the effects of drag force when using a golf club head, and particularly a driver.
2. Description of the Related Art
Golf club designs have recently trended to include characteristics intended to increase the club's inertia values to help off-center hits go farther and straighter. Driver designs in particular have recently included larger faces, which may help the driver deliver better feeling shots as well as shots that have higher ball speeds if hit away from the face center. These recent trends can, however, be detrimental to the club's performance due to the head speed reductions that these design features introduce due to the larger geometries. The prior art generally fails to provide golf club head designs that efficiently reduce drag forces and consequentially enable the club to be swung faster along its path and contribute to an improved impact event with the golf ball.
The United States Golf Association (USGA) has increasingly limited the performance innovations of golf clubs, particularly drivers. Recently, the USGA has limited the volume, dimensions of the head, such as length, width, and height, face compliance, inertia of driver heads and overall club length. Current methods previously used to improve the performance of golf clubs have been curtailed by limitations on design parameters set by the USGA.
An area of golf club performance improvement that exists, as of this date, is the potential to reduce the drag force that opposes the club head's travel through the air during its path to the golf ball on the tee or ground. A reduction in drag force would allow the club head to travel faster along its path and contribute to an improved impact event with the golf ball, resulting in higher golf ball velocities and consequentially, in longer golf shots.